Polymarket accused of funding fake-bet social videos
The Wall Street Journal said it found more than 1,100 deceptive clips showing staged Polymarket bets and wins.
By Maya Lindqvist · Senior Technology Correspondent
2 min read
Polymarket paid social media creators to make videos that appeared to show real wagers and big wins, according to a Wall Street Journal investigation. If accurate, the findings mean some viewers were shown promotional clips that presented staged betting activity as authentic without saying the creators were paid.
The Journal said it identified more than 1,100 deceptive videos tied to the prediction-market company. Creators who spoke with the newspaper confirmed they had been paid by Polymarket to make the clips, according to the Journal, even though the videos did not disclose that arrangement.
The videos were designed to look like ordinary posts from people placing bets on Polymarket, the Journal reported. The newspaper said closer inspection showed signs that the activity was not real, including one video in which a person appeared to visit “poiymarket.com” instead of Polymarket’s actual website.
What the Journal found
The Journal reported that none of the bets shown in the more than 1,100 videos it reviewed were genuine. In 118 of those clips, creators were shown celebrating supposed winning bets that added up to nearly $900,000, according to the newspaper.
Those same wagers would not have produced winnings if they had been real, the Journal said. Instead, the newspaper calculated that the bets would have lost $166,000.
The apparent use of look-alike websites was part of the setup, according to the Journal. The Verge, citing the Journal’s investigation, reported that Polymarket later removed sites such as “poiymarket” after the newspaper began asking questions.
The Journal also reported that many creators deleted the videos from their accounts after its inquiries began. The report did not describe the clips as disclosed advertisements, and the creators who spoke with the Journal said they had been compensated while not saying so in the videos.
Why the clips matter
The findings add scrutiny to the way prediction-market companies promote themselves on social platforms. According to the Journal, the clips presented fake wins and fake bets in a format that could be mistaken for real user activity.
The report centers on Polymarket’s social media marketing practices, not on real trades made by users on the platform. The key allegation from the Journal is that the company funded staged videos that made fabricated betting outcomes look genuine to viewers.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.